In Brief

* 1/2 Michael Bolton, “Timeless (The Classics) Vol. 2,” Columbia. It’s almost too easy to criticize an album on which Bolton interprets songs made famous by some of the greatest soul singers ever. Almost. To be fair, Bolton’s slick, smarmy versions of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together” and Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” won’t alienate his hard-core fans. And the rest of us know better anyway.

*

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.